updated 11:15 am EST, Fri February 26, 2010

Dell says Mini 5 only a start

The Mini 5 is just the beginning of a larger tablet strategy at Dell, the company's tablet division head Neeraj Choubey said on Thursday. The 5-inch handheld will be the only one to launch this spring but is just the first in a "family" that will have multiple screen sizes available. All of them are likely to run Android and go beyond just what Google provides, with a set of office document apps and a cross-device Internet sync service.

Choubey wouldn't settle on pricing but would say that the Mini 5 will be "competitive" when it ships. The tablet stands to be relatively expensive as it will have 3G as well as a 5-megapixel camera, although the inclusion of just 2GB of built-in storage may offset some of the difference.

Dell's approach throws it headlong into competition with the iPad as one or more models are likely to come close to Apple's chosen 9.7-inch size. As of now, the Mini 5 is closer to a MID (mobile Internet device) than a conventional tablet as its screen size, resolution and features will make it much more dependent on network access than a more expensive but also more offline-capable product like Apple's.

The Dell tablets won't even come close

Dell just doesn't have the retail clout that Apple has. People are going to walk into the Apple Store, spend a while playing with the iPad and will likely walk out with one. Dell will unlikely have content that iTMS has. Sure you'll still be able to load movies on the Dell Mini 5 using your computer, but the iPad will have huge amounts of directly downloadable content from iTMS.